Concerned Orange Walk residents start a petition to save the New River

Following the public meeting with the Department of the Environment, Friends of the New River, a non-profit organization, started a petition seeking signatures to press the Department of the Environment into swift action. Friends of the New River, was established in mid 2017 to promote and monitor the health of the New River. In the petition titled “Community Petition on the state of the New River”, it acknowledges that the New River has gradually deteriorated over the past fifty years due to residential and industrial pollution and drought. It also speaks to the impact of this on human health and the local economy. Finally, it states that the Department of the Environment has the mandate to implement functions as stipulated in Section Four of the Environmental Protection Act. As such, the F.N.R. lists seven actions it seeks the department to undertake including continuous, long-term assessments of the River, coordination with stakeholders to prevent and control pollutants entering the river and compliance of the Environmental Protection Act among other things. The organization is now collecting signatures from concerned residents and interested parties. The F.N.R. is also working on a plan of action which it hopes to finalize in the near future.